2006-05-26 TBeltcollins - Laserfiche WebLink

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especially wealthy people like to perch themselves up in commanding views and stuff like that. So Im not convinced that the 30 feet will not intercept a much larger portion of the ocean view than what it shows in this sort of typical - So Im wondering if theres some way, assuming that . you all are certainly okay with the same concern I have, that it can be written into a condition so that we dont have some applicant trying to take advantage of what he can to be on top of the world there. ALAMEDA:Response? MOOERS:You know, Im clear with your intent. Im just quite not sure how you would write that condition and how it would be enforced. The property, and if we had maybe larger topography maps, we could see slopes away from the highway. There are flatter areas but there are not promontories, you know, along the property that would extend above, other than a couple of spots right along the road that would be 150 feet of the road. So Im not quite sure how to answer that question. Theres not, for example, a ridge on the property that someone would build on top of the ridge and become more noticeable than in other spots. Its a pretty gradual drop to the ocean. In fact, it actually slopes down and then it drops very abruptly near the ocean. ALAMEDA:Commissioner Graham, given the topography, does that still concern you, the 30-foot limit or -? GRAHAM:Yeah, it does concern me. And I wish I had the foresight to come out this morning to really look closely as I went by. Were all looking at it from a mathematical point of view. There is a certain elevation of the road, I dont know what it is. Lets say its 300 feet and there is a certain distance to the shoreline. So you can draw a triangle and say that the shoreline is so many degrees below the horizontal. So if everything was to be more degrees below the horizontal map we wouldnt see it intercepting the shoreline at all. So if we made some condition that if the degrees were 11 degrees below the horizontal then no housetop should be more than 8 degrees below the horizontal or something, that would feel like that would be very workable. MOOERS:From the roadway fronting this property, you cannot see the shoreline in any area. The shoreline is not visible. The ocean is visible but it drops abruptly into the ocean. So from the roadway you cannot see the shoreline at any spot along this property. YUEN:We did go through some in discussions. And Im concerned about the same thing that youre talking about, three things: the view of the horizon, the view to the ocean and then the nonview to the shoreline. GRAHAM:Okay. YUEN:Okay,theviewtothehorizonisessentiallyhorizontal. GRAHAM:Okay. YUEN:Andtheelevationoftheroadisatabout140feet.Imconfidentwith theseconditionsyouwillnotblocktheviewtothehorizon;andthatswhatthisdiagramalso shows.Youwouldhavetobuildprettyclosetotheroad,thetallestbuildingclosertotheroadto blockaviewtothehorizon.Allright?Youwill,thehouses,withthiscondition,willblockpart oftheviewofthesea,potentially.WhatImsayingisasshowninthisdiagram,itwillblock part of the view to the sea. And what weve done, the condition we have to deal with that is just to limit the height, which will limit how much of the view is blocked, depending on how close it is to the ocean. 8